Member update: Dr Helena Franco wins Harvard prize
Past AMA Queensland Committee of Doctors in Training (CDT) Vice Chair Dr Helena Franco has become the first Australian to win the prestigious Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.
Dr Franco’s team beat more than 300 teams from across Harvard’s 13 schools to win one of five US$75,000 grand prizes in the Student Healthcare and Life Sciences Track for InConfidence, a smart patch delivering at-home nerve stimulation to treat urinary incontinence.
It was a rare venture into urology for the aspiring orthopaedic surgeon, who is completing a Master of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School.
Dr Franco was the team lead for the Harvard challenge, working with InConfidence founder and fellow Australian Nicky Agahari, Queensland-based radiation oncologist Dr Mihir Shanker and Dr Martin Jensen, an American.
“We will all age. By the time we reach 75 years, 80 per cent of us will suffer urinary incontinence,” Dr Franco said in her pitch to judges.
“Throughout my medical practice as a doctor, I’ve seen the devastating impact incontinence has on quality of life.
“Our smart patch, worn on the ankle, modulates the intercommunication between the bladder and brain to restore the normal function and return quality of life.
“Our functional prototype is easily applied, discreet and comfortable.
“Through digital biomarkers and artificial intelligence and interfacing directly with clinicians, we revolutionise management through personalised control and allowing for acute symptom care when patients need it the most.
“We all have someone dear to us who suffers from this chronic syndrome, perhaps suffering in silence. Let’s give confidence back to those with incontinence.”
Dr Franco moved to Boston in August 2021 to complete a Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School.
She was awarded a Menzies scholarship and an American Australian Association Scholarship for her thesis, which is looking at socio-demographic factors that have influenced children who have undergone significant surgery for hip abnormalities.
She still plans to train in orthopaedics, but now knows far more about urinary incontinence than she did before.
You can read more in The Harvard Gazette, watch Dr Franco’s initial pitch and watch the judging pitch (at 39m37s).
Read or first Meet a member article about Dr Franco.
